Loops, Music Production Apps, and Hardware

Send live audio or MIDI from one Audiobus-compatible app to another: add effects on top of your favourite synth, use your favourite step sequencer to drive the whole lot, and record it all in your favourite DAW, sampler or looper. Plug in a MIDI keyboard, run it through an arpeggiator or a key quantizer, and record the result in your DAW, or drive several different sound generators with a keyboard splitter. The possibilities are endless.

Last update: Added support for Ableton Link Start/Stop Sync: When Start/Stop Sync is enabled, Audiobus will forward start and stop messages from Link to connected apps.

ChordBud is an all in one app that combines most important concepts when sketching a song. You have tons of scales, their harmonic fields, option to choose triads, 7th and extended chords with their inversions, most common chord progressions with the ability to creating your custom progressions and even notes if you want to sketch a melody or bass, all under your hand.

New features recap:
– History (undo/redo up to 10 steps)
– Multiple input editing (Hold your finger on the timetable for a second to drag-to-select tool)
– Custom duration for sequencer (It was auto-calculated based on the longest track in your sequence, now you can set it on the timetable with range pointer)
– Change octave for the individual inputs (Used to be all inputs share the same octave in the same track and only can change from the track settings. Long press an input for the “octave change” menu item)
– Chord inversions

ChordBud does not generate sound but has a built-in MIDI sequencer that sends MIDI to other MIDI-enabled apps in your iOS device, connected MIDI hardware and CoreMIDI enabled software on your Mac or PC via network session. It auto-detects available MIDI destinations and lets you choose which one you want to connect. Also, it supports Ableton Link as well!

You can add up to 16 tracks to your projects, add chords or notes to your tracks and assign different MIDI channels to them and sketch your ideas into a real song.

Lots of scales, chord progressions, harmonic fields, triads, tetrads and extended chords with rich editing features are waiting for you to create your next awesome song.

ChordBud also offers its core components open sourced on GitHub. Feel free to fork them, send a pull request to make it better, open an issue to share your ideas or give them a star if you like them.

Soundfruuze is an exprerimental live sampler / looper / granular and FFT scrub effect. It records live the recent 10 seconds of audio and allows you to manipulate it with special controls. The interface is divided into five “lanes”, sound is produced by touching the lanes.
Each lane can be set up to use different effect and has various control parameters mapped to the touch position:

What’s New v1.3

The app engine is completely rewritten to support automation:
– OSC. Send and receive all control values and touch actions.
– AudioUnit automation. Store and recall presets.Send and receive all control values and touch actions.
– MIDI. Control sliders with midi data.

Scratch

Most basic lane type. You can control the volume of the resulting sound and smoothness of the position interpolation. Lesser smooth value produces the sound with more high frequencies.

Speed

Another basic playback type. Starts playing from the position in the sound that you selected with touch. Vertical position controls playback speed, horizontal parameter is assignable.

Granular Freeze

Allows you to select the sound at some position and use both horizontal and vertical coordinates of touch as 2 independent parameters. You can control volume, playback speed (pitch) and the grain size.

Granular Scrub

This type of lane is very similar to granular freeze but it allows to change the position of the grain after its start.

Granular Stream

This lane type enables granular playback with random parameters. You can randomise grain position in the selected range, speed, grain size and pan. There is special control for that type lane. The 2-dimensional slider is assignable so you can change 2 parameters for each touch independently.

FFT Freeze and FFT Scrub

In both FFT types of lanes another algorithm is used to process sound. In both FFT Freeze and Scrub sound is analyzed with the FFT transform and divided into frames. FFT Freeze allows you to select the frame at the desired sample position and to play it making the sound “freeze” at this point.

Looper

This lane type allows you to make loops / repeat large grains of sound. When you touch a looper lane, a new looper control is created and is kept there until you turn it off with the red ‘close’ button. You can change loop speed, volume, size and position for each loop individually or for all loops on one lane together using additional controls

FFT Looper

This type works the same way as basic Looper but allows to change playback speed while keeping the pitch. It uses FFT algorithm for playback allowing constant pitch for any playback speed and the same FFT effects (gate and phase randomisation)

Samplebot is a collector of sounds. It’s a crafter of songs. It’s a finger-drummable looping sequencer of rainbow glory, and it wants to be your friend. Come. Play. Robo-boogie.

What’s New

1. Now you can import audio from iCloud, Dropbox and other cloud services, from the Clipboard, or from your music library – and you can manage your sounds from right within Samplebot.
2. Adjust the playback speed and pitch of your tracks from the track editor, and export your track audio for use elsewhere.
3. Sync with other apps using Ableton Link. Great for use with Audiobus!

– Record samples or import clips from your Music library, from iCloud Drive, Dropbox or other compatible services, then play them back on beautiful, sproingy rainbow pads!
– Then record or input arrangements using the sequencer, featuring built-in drum patterns, loop record and playback, quantization and copy/paste
– Trim samples, and adjust volume, balance, pitch and speed for the perfect mix
– Share your creations to Facebook, or export them to other music apps
– Comprehensive MIDI control with velocity, for play using a grid controller like the Launchpad
– Helpful and fun-loving intro tutorial

AutoPad is an app for musicians that allows you to play ambient pad loops. Simply tap a key to start a pad, and AutoPad will provide a tasteful soundscape that plays for as long as you desire. Natural crossfades between keys are handled automatically.

iPad Loops is a music app blog dedicated to exposing the best iPad apps for iOS musicians, producers, and Djs. This is not a database of every app. It is, however, one of useful recommendations from someone with many years in music production. I try to update it on a daily basis (ok sometimes every two days) and I do my best to post useful apps only. My name is Jason Donnelly (Dj Puzzle).
You might know me from my royalty free loop packs and sound design. Some of the apps that contain my loops are Retronyms AudioCopy, LP-5, iPRO.DJSAMPLER, Looptastic, and Audio Elements. My work is published by Magix Soundtrack Loops, Sample Logic, Pakotec, Loopmasters, Acoustica, Xmix, Sound Trends, and many more. Subscribe to our RSS feed below to get updated when new apps are posted.